A few days after the union for workers at steel giant Altos Hornos de México (AHMSA) requested the support of the President of the Republic to approve one of the main conditions of the investors who will buy from the steel company, the President said that he will help AHMSA if the main shareholder, Alonso Ancira, decides to sell the company.
I want to "tell the workers that we have been looking for a way to rescue Altos Hornos (of Mexico, AHMSA) (...) Mr. (Alonso) Ancira has put many people out of work (...) And Ancira does not give in (stock control). He would like, I think, that he wants to be allowed to continue being preponderant (as a shareholder)," President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said today, in his daily morning conference from the National Palace in Mexico City.
Since the first days of March, AHMSA reported through the institutional information channel (regulated by the Securities Market Law) of the Mexican Stock Exchange that on February 20 a framework agreement was signed to transfer the majority of the shares of AHMSA to a group of foreign investors to "ensure the recapitalization of AHMSA, the normalization of its operations and its future development."
Information sources consulted by SteelOrbis commented at the time that the plan to restructure the debt of the steel company related to the Public Treasury has been in place by the government since March. In other words, for almost six months and to date, due to the president's statement today, López Obrador was unaware of the agreement signed with the New York investment fund manager Argentem Creek Partners
According to recent statements by Alonso Ancira, AHMSA's potential buyers are “Cargill Capital (the steel company's largest creditor), the Texas Kickapoo tribe, and Chinese businessmen willing to invest $1.0 billion in three years. All of this is driven by Argentem.”
Despite this foreign direct investment proposal, the President said "yes, new investors can be helped to guarantee that they will allocate resources, fresh money to reactivate the company again (...), but we cannot make an agreement with Mr. Ancira.”
The newspaper La Razón published at the time: “It is not true that the President did not know, or that his collaborators deceived him or were disloyal. The President has all the information, of course he knows everything, the juiciest deals that are made under the protection of the Public Power have the approval of the President,” words of the President.
SteelOrbis recently published that only the tax debt to the Public Treasury is equivalent to $408 million (MXN 7,139 million), plus a third reparation payment to Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) for $112.5 million, totaling $520 million (MXN 9,107 million).
To this amount must be added the debts of the energy consumed to the state Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) and Pemex. In addition to contributions to social security (IMSS), to the federal mortgage (Infonavit), among other debts.
Last week, the labor leader of the National Democratic Union of Mining, Metallurgical, and Steel Workers (Mining Union), Ismael Leija Escalante, on behalf of the thousands of affiliated workers, requested the support of the President of the Republic to approve the restructuring plan of Argentem.
Last Friday, August 25, the unionized workers accumulated 16 weeks without receiving their salaries due to the paralysis of the company with an annual capacity of 5.5 million tons of steel.
If the restructuring plan is approved, in two weeks the workers will receive their salaries pending payment because investors already have $250 million available for working capital to restart operations.
About 60,000 direct and indirect jobs depend on AHMSA in the northern region of Mexico.